29th  Congress 
Session. 


[SENATE.]  [152] 


IN  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


February  24,  1846. 


Submitted,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 


lie  lands,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Cross  and  Central  rail¬ 
roads  jin  said  State  f  respectfully  ask  leave  to  report  : 

That  similar  propositions,  in  the  form  of  bills,  have  been  frequent  sub¬ 
jects  of  consideration  by  Congress,  and,  in  several  instances,  have  received; 
its  approbation,  for  reasons  believed  to  be  satisfactory,  and  on  principles  its 
no  degree  conflicting  with  any  constitutional  provision. 

It  will  be  the  business  of  your  committee  briefly  to  examine  those  reasons, 
and  present  a  condensed  view  of  the  principles  which  seem  to  have  con¬ 
trolled  the  action  of  Congress  in  this  respect,  presuming  their  efficacy  eanl 
with  equal  propriety,  be  invoked  in  every  analogous  case  which  may  be 
presented. 

In  order,  however,  to  a  correct  appreciation  of  them,  it  seems  necessary 
to  present  to  the  view  of  the  Senate,  and  to  press  upon  its  attention,  the  anom¬ 
alous  condition  of  the  States  for  whose  benefit  such  grants  have  been 
made,  in  regard  to  the  public  domain  within  them  ;  for  they  are  not  in  the 
same  free  condition  the  original  States  have  ever  been,  and  yet  are,  with  re¬ 
gard  to  the  lands  within  their  respective  limits. 

It  is  known  to  the  Senate,  that  in  the  States  formed  out  of  ceded  territo¬ 
ry,  now  ten  in  number,  and  in  two  organized  Territories,  soon  to  become 
States,  the  unappropriated  lands  within  them  have  always  been,  and  yet  are, 
under  the  control  of  Congress,  the  great  majority  of  those  States  having 
bound  themselves  by  solemn  compact  not  to  interfere  with  the  primary  dis¬ 
posal  of  the  soil  by  Congress.  All  the  pecuniary  advantages  of  such  a  vast 
and  valuable  possession  have  wholly  accrued  to  the  benefit  of  the  United 
States,  they  being  considered  the  trustee  of  this  immense  fund,  to  be  dis¬ 
posed  of  by  Congress  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  States. 

The  original  States  have  been,  and  are,  differently  situated,  in  respect  to 
the  vacant  lands  within  their  limits.  By  the  Congress  of  1778  the  princi¬ 
ple  was  decided  that  the  vacant  and  unappropriated  crown  lands,  by  the 
successful  issue  of  the  Revolution,  would  vest,  notin  the  United  States,  buffc 

Ritchie  &  Heiss,  print* 


2 


[152] 

in  each  individual  State  within  whose  several  limits  they  might  be,  and 
this  in  virtue  of  their  own  separate  sovereignty  and  independence. 

This  principle  extended  to  the  lands  claimed  by  several  of  the  States,  as 
within  their  charters,  but  without  their  settled  and  organized  limits;  and,  by 
accepting  cessions  of  them  from  each  State,  separately,  Congress  acknow¬ 
ledged  its  propriety. 

These  claims,  thus  acknowledged,  gave  rise  to  much  embarrassment. 
The  jealousy  of  the  other  States,  who  had  none,  was  highly  excited,  and  a 
dissolution  of  the  confederacy  seriously  apprehended.  This  state  of  things 
produced  the  resolutions  of  the  sixth  of  September  and  the  tenth  of  October, 
1780,  inducing  the  cessions  to  the  United  States  which  speedily  followed. 

This  right  of  domain  in  the  original  States,  by  virtue  of  their  individual 
sovereignty  and  independence,  was  admitted  in  the  fullest  extent,  and  they 
have  always  exercised  it  without  control.  It  was  of  essential  advantage  to 
them  ;  as,  by  it,  having  the  power  to  dispose  of  all  the  lands  within  their 
limits,  without  let  or  hindrance,  for  their  own  State  purposes,  they  could 
endow  schools,  colleges,  and  seminaries  of  learning ;  make  highways  to 
facilitate  intercourse  ;  erect  charitable  and  other  institutions,  and  appro¬ 
priate  them  to  the  various  purposes  of  internal  improvement,  without  peti¬ 
tioning  their  sister  States. 

This  right  in  the  original  States  to  dispose  of  the  vacant  lands,  resulted 
from  their  sovereignty,  freedom,  and  independence;  and  the  admission  of 
the  new  States  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  into  the  Union,  has  been  pre¬ 
ceded  in  each  case  by  the  declaration,  on  the  part  of  Congress,  that  such 
admission  shall  be  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States,  and  with 
the  same  rights  of  freedom,  sovereignty,  and  independence.  This  appears 
from  the  resolution  of  the  10th  October,  1780,  by  the  cession  from  Virginia 
of  the  1st  of  March,  1784,  reiterated  in  the  resolutions  of  Congress  of  the 
23d  of  April  following,  and  again  repeated  in  the  ordinance  of  the  13th 
«fuly,  1787,  in  still  stronger  language,  by  declaring  that  such  admission 
shall  be  equal  “  in  all  respects  whatever .”  Yet,  so  far  as  this  most  impor¬ 
tant  right  of  soil  is  concerned,  the  new  States  have  never  been  on  this  foot¬ 
ing  of  equality — they  have  never  possessed  such  a  fund  as  the  original 
States  did,  by  which  to  construct  public  works ;  and,  therefore,  applica¬ 
tions  for  grants  for  such  purposes  should  not  be  regarded  by  them  unfa¬ 
vorably,  nor  with  prejudice. 

If  they  possessed  the  lands  within  their  limits,  there  would  be  no  neces¬ 
sity  for  these  applications;  and  when  they  are  made  to  Congress,  their  des¬ 
titute  condition  in  this  respect  should  not  be  disregarded. 

It  was  the  opinion  of one  ofour  most  eminent  statesmen — of  him  who  was, 
by  the  common  judgment  of  his  country,  acknowledged  to  have  possessed 
the  most  intimate  and  correct  knowledge  of  the  powers  of  the  government, 
both  under  the  articles  of  confederation  and  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States;  who  was  a  prominent  actor  in  its  formation,  and  who,  by  his  learned 
and  able  essays  in  the  “  Federalist,”  prepared  the  minds  of  his  countrymen 
to  adopt  it — that  the  acceptance  of  the  cession  of  these  lands  from  the  States, 
by  the  Congress  of  the  confederation,  was  without  any  constitutional  author¬ 
ity  whatever.  The  nation,  however,  has  long  sanctioned  this  usurpation  of 
authority,  if  it  be  one  ;  and  long  acquiescence  seems  to  have  hallowed  the 
act,  notwithstanding  the  manifest  inequality  this  possession  of  the  lands  has 
produced  among  the  States.  To  remove  this  inequality,  to  approximate 
the  condition  of  the  new  States  in  some  degree  to  that  of  the  old,  by  lib- 


3 


[  152  ] 

-eral  grants  for  important  public  purposes,  seems  to  be  no  less  a  dictate  of 
justice  than  of  policy.  These  lands  were  accepted  by  the  United  States,  to 
be  disposed  of  for  the  common  benefit  of  all  the  States;  and  they  were 
pledged  at  once,  as  security  for  the  payment  of  the  revolutionary  debt,  (that 
being  considered  a  proper  disposal  of  them  for  the  common  benefit  of  all 
the  States  for  the  time  being,)  and  their  usefulness  in  this  particular  caused, 
no  doubt,  many  good  patriots  and  statesmen  to  overlook  the  usurpation 
of  power  by  which  they  were  obtained.  The  debt  being  now  paid,  all  re¬ 
straint  upon  liberal  grants  is  removed,  and  all  that  can  be  demanded  of 
Congress  in  disposing  of  them  is,  that  such  a  disposition  shall  be  made  as 
shall  best  promote  the  common  benefit  of  all  the  States  in  their  aggregate 
capacity.  Congress  may  convey  the  legal  tide  to  a  portion  of  them,  or  to 
all  of  them,  to  the  States  in  which  they  are  situate,  provided  it  be  bona  fide , 
and,  in  its  judgment,  advancing  the  common  interest. 

The  receipt  of  money  for  them  as  revenue,  may  be  a  common  benefit  to 
all  the  States ;  yet  there  are  other  varied  and  multiplied  considerations 
which  may,  consistently  with  a  proper  appreciation  of,  and  a  sacred  regard 
to  this  common  benefit,  control  the  action  of  Congress  in  their  disposal,  in 
which  money  shall  not  be  an  element.  So  the  Congress  has  thought,  and 
acted,  ever  since  the  United  States  became  a  trustee  for  the  States.  Its 
early  and  its  more  recent  action  manifests  this.  It  is  a  proper  question  for 
Congress  to  determine,  in  the  execution  of  this  trust,  if  the  common  ben¬ 
efit,  under  a  certain  state  of  circumstances,  now  perhaps  existing,  will  not 
be  best  promoted  by  an  unconditional  cession  of  all  the  lands  to  the  States 
in  which  they  lie.  A  direct  pecuniary  gain  is  not  a  necessary  element 
in  the  calculation  of  benefit,  which  may  accrue  to  the  States,  collectively, 
from  such  a  policy ;  nor  would  it  be  a  breach  of  faith,  or  an  improper 
execution  of  the  trust,  so  to  do. 

By  accepting  this  trust,  an  obligation  rested  upon  Congress,  and  yet  re¬ 
mains,  to  adopt  such  measures  as  should  tend  to  make  the  fund  valuable 
and  productive  ;  for,  as  waste  and  unappropriated  lands,  the  retreat  of  the 
savage  and  the  wild  beast,  they  could  contribute  but  in  a  very  limited  de¬ 
gree,  in  proportion  to  their  extent,  to  pay  the  public  debt  or  promote  the 
common  benefit  of  the  States.  The  committee  have  not  gone  far  into  the 
calculation  ;  but,  from  the  elements  in  reach  of  all,  they  hazard  the  opinion, 
if  the  policy  had  been  adopted,  at  an  early  day,  of  giving  to  each  actual  set¬ 
tler  a  quarter  section  of  the  public  land,  more  benefit  would  have  resulted 
to  the  aggregated  States  than  has  accrued  from  the  policy  which  was  adopt¬ 
ed,  and  yet  obtains.  The  minimum  price,  for  many  years,  was  vastly  above 
their  real  value,  as  then  circumstanced ;  and  is  now,  after  the  domain  has 
been  picked  and  culled  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  unreasonably 
high,  causing  vast  bodies  of  unsaleable  land  to  accumulate  upon  the  United 
States,  neither  receiving  nor  dispensing  benefit.  Had  they  all  been  given 
away  on  condition  of  settlement  and  cultivation,  such  would  have  been  the 
increase  of  consumers  of  dutiable  articles,  and  such  their  increased  ability 
to  buy  them,  that  the  general  coders  would  have  been  filled  to  repletion. 
Instead  of  broad  and  fertile  plains,  unfurrowed  by  the  plough,  and  the  forest 
wilderness  yielding  no  products  for  the  sustenance  of  man,  or  for  market, 
to  swell,  by  their  avails,  the  receipts  of  customs,  there  would  have  been  seen 
at  this  day,  high  cultivation,  a  dense,  hardy,  and  industrious  population, 
possessed  of  all  the  means  of  enjoyment,  contented  and  happy,  and  contrib¬ 
uting,  by  their  numbers  and  power,  to  the  grandeur  and  stability  of  our  po- 


4 


[152] 

litical  and  social  system.  Such  a  disposal  of  the  lands,  with  such  benefits 
to  follow  it,  none  can  deny,  would  have  been  a  proper  execution  of  the  trust. 

If  the  Congress  of  1787,  instead  of  imposing  upon  the  disbanded  officers 
offthe  revolutionary  army,  who  formed  the  “  Ohio  Company” — prompted 
alike  by  their  patriotism  and  their  poverty  to  seek  a  new  and  distant  theatre 
for  their  enterprise  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  Muskingum,  surrounded 
by  savages  and  remote  from  all  civilization — such  onerous  terms,  and  a  price 
so  high  for  such  lands  as  they  selected,  had  made  of  them  pure  donations, 
and  persevered  in  the  policy  to  all  subsequent  settlers  on  every  part  of  the 
domain,  or  required  only  that  the  expenses  attending  their  acquisition  should 
be  paid,  as  the  great  financial  genius  of  that  age  a  few  years  afterwards  re¬ 
commended,  who  can  doubt  that  all  the  essentials  of  national  happiness  and 
national  strength  would  have  been  greatly  multiplied,  and  the  benefits  to  the 
aggregated  States  vastly  augmented  ?  In  the  partial  adoption  of  this  policy 
by  Congress,  it  is  easy  to  be  seen  that  the  common  benefit  of  all  the  States 
has  been  greatly  promoted.  In  the  ordinance  of  1787  for  the  government 
of  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  it  is  declared,  that  “religion, 
morality,  and  knowledge  being  necessary  to  good  government  and  the  hap¬ 
piness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  en¬ 
couraged.”  In  making  the  sale  to  the  Ohio  Company,”  and  to  John 
Cleves  Symmes  subsequently,  in  the  same  year,  one  section  in  each  town¬ 
ship,  within  the  boundaries  of  their  respective  tracts,  was  reserved  by  the 
United  States,  to  be  granted  for  religious  purposes.  In  1788,  a  grant  wa& 
made  of  10,000  acres  to  the  society  of  the  United  Brethren  for  the  same  pur¬ 
poses  ;  to  Arnold  Henry  Dohrman,  for  his  benevolence  to  American  sea¬ 
men,  of  one  entire  township;  in  1796,  of  24,000  acres  to  the  French  in¬ 
habitants  of  Galliopolis,  on  condition  of  actual  settlement  in  five  years;  to 
Ebenezer  Zane,  in  the  same  year,  of  three  miles  square,  for  opening  a  road 
and  constructing  bridges  and  ferries  upon  it  from  Wheeling  to  Limestone, 
passing  through  the  unsettled  lands  of  the  United  States  ;  and  pure  dona¬ 
tions,  in  different  quantities,  to  various  pioneers  into  that  then  untrodden 
wilderness  of  the  west. 

All  these  were  acts  of  the  early  Congresses,  and  according  to  their  views 
of  their  powers  under  the  trust.  They  tended  to  open  to  the  view  of  the 
world  the  richness  and  capabilities  of  the  lands  the  United  States  had  ac¬ 
quired,  and  prepared  them  for  sale,  settlement,  and  cultivation,  by  pur¬ 
chasers  who,  from  various  motives,  might  be  attracted  to  them.  All  the 
legislation  of  Congress,  from  that  time  to  the  present,  has  proceeded  from 
motives  of  pecuniary  gain  to  the  United  States,  to  result  from  grants  made  to 
the  States  for  public  purposes.  Thus  the  grant  of  the  sixteenth  section  in 
each  township  of  six  miles  square,  being  one  thirty-sixth  part,  to  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  thereof  for  schools,  involved  the  necessity  of  purchasing  the  other 
thirty  five  sections  of  the  United  States  by  the  inhabitants,  before  the  grant¬ 
ed  section  could  be  useful  or  available.  This  grant  Of  one  section  con¬ 
tributed  most  materially  to  sell  the  remaining  thirty-five,  a  great  induce¬ 
ment  being  presented  thereby  to  the  emigrants  from  the  old  States  to  the 
new,  to  settle  upon  them.  Without  such  an  inducement,  lands  in  Ohio 
and  other  western  States,  now  densely  settled  and  highly  cultivated,  might 
have  remained  to  this  day  comparatively  a  wilderness. 

This  trust  fund  being  thus  managed  by  the  early  fathers  of  the  republic, 
Congress,  in  1802,  in  admitting  Ohio  into  the  Union  as  a  State,  gave  fur¬ 
ther  and  more  distinct  and  unequivocal  indications  of  their  idea  of  the  powers 


5 


[152] 

under  the  trust,  by  granting  to  her  one  twentieth  part,  or  five  per  cent  of 
the  net  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  all  such  lands  as  should  be  sold  within 
her  limits  from  and  after  the  thirtieth  day  of  June  of  that  year,  to  be 
applied  to  the  laying  out  and  making  public  roads,  leading  from  the  navi¬ 
gable  waters  emptying  into  the  Atlantic,  to  the  Ohio  river,  and  to  the  State 
of  Ohio,  and  through  the  same.  This,  it  is  true,  was  upon  a  contract  with 
Ohio  for  certain  exemptions  beneficial  to  the  United  States  ;  yet  who  can 
doubt  that  the  most  powerful  motive  operating  with  Congress  was  the  same, 
on  a  larger  scale,  as  that  which  controlled  it  in  making  the  grant  to  Zane 
for  his  blazed  or  three-notched  road  ?  It  was  to  sell  the  lands.  In  that 
year  Ohio  did  not  contain  much  over  60,000  inhabitants;  and,  saving  the 
lands  sold  to  the  Ohio  Company  and  to  John  Cleves  Symmes,  the  sales  had 
not  exceeded  800,000  acres. 

In  March,  1806,  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  an  act  was 
passed  to  carry  out  this  design  by  Congress.  It  is  entitled  “  An  act  to  regu¬ 
late  the  laying  out  and  making  a  road  from  Cumberland,  in  the  State  of 
Maryland,  to  the  State  of  Ohio.”  Before  it  was  finished  to  Wheeling,  emi¬ 
grants  made  their  way  to  the  west,  to  purchase  government  lands,  by. 
the  rivers  and  lakes,  in  boats  and  other  craft ;  and  they  were  few  in  num¬ 
ber,  and  surrounded  by  dangers  of  every  description.  If  the  land  route 
was  of  necessity  pursued,  the  led  pack-horse  was  the  vehicle  for  transport¬ 
ing  baggage  and  household  goods ;  then  the  slow-moving  wagon,  preceded 
by  axemen,  to  cut  out  the  road.  Opening  a  good  road,  by  the  United  States, 
increased  the  stimulus  to  emigration — added  population  to  the  State,  and 
money  to  the  national  treasury,  to  such  a  degree,  that,  at  the  second  census, 
in  1820,  (an  act  having,  in  the  mean  time,  been  passed  to  extend  this  road 
through  that  State,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,)  the  population  of  Ohio  had  in¬ 
creased  to  581,434,  and  the  sales  of  public  lands  to  $14,796,211  87.  Simi¬ 
lar  beneficial  results  followed  the  grants  to  that  State  for  turnpikes  and 
canals ;  so  that  now,  nearly  all  the  land  within  it  is  sold — having  produced 
to  the  treasury  a  grand  total  of  $23,239,838  53.  How  has  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  this  trust  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  operated  7  Equally  as  beneficial 
as  in  Ohio,  as  the  facts  show. 

In  1816,  Congress  appropriated  $8,000  in  money  to  open  a  road  in  the 
Territory  of  Illinois,  from  the  Ohio  river  to  Kaskaskia,  then  the  seat  of  govern¬ 
ment.  Its  whole  course  was  through  the  public  lands,  with  here  and  there 
a  settler— the  population  of  the  whole  Territory  not  exceeding  30,000,  and 
the  sales  of  land  amounting  in  that  year  to  no  more,  after  deducting  future- 
relinquishments,  than  $100,000. 

In  1818  there  were  40,000  inhabitants,  and  in  1820,  55,211  ;  the  sales 
of  land  having  amounted,  up  to  that  time,  to  $1,100,539  58. 

In  1820,  on  the  15th  of  May,  Congress  passed  a  law  to  continue  the  Cum¬ 
berland  road  through  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  distinctly  an¬ 
nouncing  its  design  in  the  preamble  to  the  act,  that  “the  lands  of  the 
United  States  may  become  more  valuable.”  The  money  to  survey  and 
mark  this  road  from  Wheeling  west,  through  the  government  lands,  was 
not  to  be  reimbursed  out  of  the  5  percent,  accruing  to  those  States, respec¬ 
tively,  from  the  net  proceeds  of  the  sales,  but  was  payable  out  of  any  unap¬ 
propriated  moneys  in  the  Treasury.  Enhancing  the  value  of  the  public 
lands  was  the  object — the  means  to  be  used,  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  . 
nation;  thus  establishing  the  principle,  that,  being  the  great  landowner  of 
die  age,  and  of  the  world,  in  trust  for  the  States,  die  general  moneys  of  the 


6 


[152] 

cestui  que  trust  could  be  legally  used  to  make  the  lands  valuable.  Con¬ 
gress  considered,  doubtless,  if  the  United  States  could  rightfully  own  all 
the  lands  in  those  States,  they  had  a  corresponding  right  to  make  them 
saleable  for  the  common  benefit,  by  improvements  upon  them  in  the  nature 
of  roads,  canals,  and  such  like  structures.  A  denial  of  this  right  would  seem 
to  involve  the  denial  of  the  right  to  own  them.  The  exercise  of  this  dimin¬ 
utive  power  of  granting  portions  of  the  public  lands  to  the  States  in  which 
they  lie,  in  order  to  make  the  residuum  saleable,  or  by  appropriations  of 
money  to  construct  roads  through  them  for  the  same  purpose,  is  surely  no 
greater  infringement  of  State  rights,  than  that  other  and  overshadowing 
power,  repeatedly  exercised,  of  purchasing  the  Indian  title  to  these  lands 
with  money  from  the  national  treasury,  and  holding  them  against  the 
States,  in  direct  opposition  to,  and  interference  with,  their  acknowledged 
right  of  sovereignty.  If  the  general  government  can  exercise  the  greater 
power,  it  is  idle  to  contest  the  exercise  of  the  less.  The  possession  of  the 
principal  power  includes  all  the  correlative  and  subordinate  powers  in  sub¬ 
jection  only  to  that  clause  of  the  constitution  which  declares  that  “  Con¬ 
gress  may  dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting, 
the  territory  or  other  property  of  the  United  States,”  and  to  the  declaration 
of  the  trust  with  which  their  cession  was  accompanied.  Whilst  operations 
were  in  active  progress  upon  this  road,  in  these  States,  and  after  the  grants 
to  them  of  land  for  canals,  and  the  completion  of  the  canal  of  Ohio,  in 
1832,  the  sales  rose,  in  Ohio,  to  $692,4^6  09  in  1833g  in  Indiana,  to 
$693,522  40,  and  in  Illinois  to  $450,242  70  ;■  mainly  attributable,  perhaps, 
to  the  great  improvement  in  steam  navigation,  by  which  their  rich  plains 
could  be  easily  approached  through  the  rivers  and  lakes  which  bound  them, 
yet  stimulated,  unquestionably,  by  those  projected  and  completed  improve¬ 
ments.  The  Territory  known  in  1800  as  Indiana,  comprising  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin,  had  but  4,875  inhabitants  in  that  year,  mostly  confined  to  the 
French  settlements  on  their  principal  rivers.  The  great  surface  beyond 
them  was  the  pasture  grounds  of  the  buffalo  and  the  elk,  with  no  sound  of 
human  industry  to  enliven  the  solitude.  Before  that  mighty  revolution  in 
intercourse  which  American  genius  developed,  a  journey  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  to  the  great  west  had  all  the  terrors  of  an  East  India  voyage, 
and  was  undertaken  with  as  much  careful  preparation.  What  was,  but  a 
few  short  years  ago,  a  journey  of  peril,  is  now  one  of  pleasure,  and  com¬ 
merce,  arts,  and  civilization  now  display  their  peaceful  triumphs  through¬ 
out  the  whole  valley.  That  the  common  benefit  has  been  promoted  by  ap¬ 
propriating  from  this  trust  fund,  to  improve  it,  not  only  in  regard  to  the 
money  which  the  people  of  the  new  States  have  paid  into  the  treasury  for 
the  lands,  excluding  the  direct  taxes  and  duties  they  have  also  paid,  but 
in  respect  to  the  increased  strength  afforded  to  the  confederacy  by  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  u  great  west,”  outstripping,  as  it  has,  the  brightest  visions 
of  our  most  sagacious  statesmen,  no  one  can  deny  ;  and  that  it  has  been  un¬ 
attended  with  any  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  country,  all  must 
admit. 

When  it  is  considered  that,  of  the  367,947,1 65  acres  of  land  to  which  the 
Indian  title  has  been  extinguished,  228.000,000,  or  thereabouts,  yet  remain 
the  property  of  the  United  States — much  of  it  remote  from  timber  and  from 
navigable  streams,  yet  fertile,  and  possessing  great  agricultural  advantages, 
(embracing,  as  it  does,  that  great  calcareous  basin  of  the  Mississippi — a  val¬ 
ley  more  than  imperial,  and  whose  powers  of  production  are  unparalleled,) — 


7 


[152] 

it  will  be  admitted  that  the  interests  of  the  United  States,  as  connected  there¬ 
with,  and  of  the  States  in  which  they  lie,  are  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  at¬ 
tract  the  serious  attention  of  Congress.  And  when  it  is  further  considered, 
that  the  United  States  claim  the  pre-emption  to  near  800,000,000  more, 
(now  covered  by  Indian  titles,)  extending  from  the  Missouri  river  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  embracing  every  variety  of  soil,  climate,  and 
production — vegetable,  animal,  and  mineral — the  more  intense  must  be  the 
interest  with  which  so  vast  a  subject  should  be  regarded.  The  policy 
heretofore  pursued  has,  inlthe  three  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois, 
up  to  the  close  of  the  past  year,  brought  into  the  national  treasury  $60,342,- 
160  44,  divided  as  follows:  from  Ohio,  $23,239,838  53;  from  Indiana, 
$19,677,462  88;  from  Illinois,  $17,424,859  03  ;  and  leaving  unsold,  of 
the  84,008,233  acres  within  them,  and  which  have  been  and  are  in  market, 
20,445,974  acres,  and  divided  as  follows :  In  Ohio,  885,767  acres  ;  in  Indi¬ 
ana,  3,729,859  acres;  and  in  Illinois,  15,830,348  acres.  These  lands  have 
been  in  market  five  years  and  over — the  largest  portion  of  them  twenty 
years ;  to  which  is  to  be  added  the  lands  not  yet  brought  into  market, 
amounting,  in  these  three  States,  to  several  millions  of  acres. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  a  very  large  portion  of  this  trust  fund  is  yet  re¬ 
maining  in  the  State  of  Illinois ;  more  than  a  moiety  of  which  has  been  in 
market  near  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  distant  from  navigation,  and  scant¬ 
ily  supplied  with  timber;  and  the  question  is,  how  can  Congress  best  promote 
the  interests  of  the  aggregated  States,  for  whose  use  alone  it  is  now  held, 
in  disposing  of  it. 

In  view  of  the  facts  already  presented,  the  committee  cannot  hesitate  to 
recommend  liberal  grants  out  of  this  great  residuum,  to  aid  in  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  thoroughfares  through  them,  by  which  they  will  be  made  accessible 
and  saleable  ;  and  they  submit,  with  great  deference  to  the  judgment  of 
others,  that  it  is  neither  fair  nor  just  that  the  State,  unaided,  should  con¬ 
struct  such  works,  however  much  she  may  need  them.  The  United  States 
are  to  be  benefited  by  them,  and  should  contribute  in  proportion  to  their 
interests  thus  to  be  advanced.  This  seems  to  be  dictated  alike  by  justice 
and  sound  policy  ;  and,  on  the  ground  of  impartiality — on  the  principle  of 
treating  the  new  States  alike — the  committee  think  the  State  of  Illinois  may 
fairly  claim,  at  the  hands  of  Congress,  the  grants  named  in  the  bill. 

To  Ohio,  the  oldest  sister  of  the  new  family  of  States,  dowerless  and  por¬ 
tionless  as  she  was  when  she  entered  the  Union,  there  have  been  given,  for 
various  purposes,  1,294,978  acres,  out  of  an  area  of  39,627  square  miles ;  of 
which  1,180,192  acres  have  been  granted  for  internal  improvements  by 
roads  and  canals. 

Illinois  has  an  area  of  55,055  square  miles.  If,  then,  the  dimensions  of  a 
State,  marking,  as  they  do,  the  extent  of  the  interests  of  the  United  States 
within  it  to  be  benefited  by  such  grants,  affords  a  basis  for  the  extent  of 
such  grants,  then  Illinois  is  entitled,  for  internal  improvements,  to  1,639,656 
acres.  She  has  received  500,000  acres  only.  If  compared  with  Indiana, 
which,  with  an  area  of  36,580  square  miles,  has  received  1,608,404  acres, 
Illinois  would  be  entitled  to  2,420,740  acres.  The  bill  proposes  to  grant 
to  her  2,114,400  acres;  namely,  for  the  Central  railroad  1,464,000,  and  for 
the  Northern  Cross  650,400  acres. 

Before  Congress  can  determine  on  the  propriety  of  the  grants  asked  for, 
it  is  necessary  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  character  of  the  works  to 
which  the  lands  are  to  be  applied.  The  committee  understand  they  are 


8 


[  152] 

favorite  projects  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  occupied  the 
most  prominent  place  in  their  great  system  of  internal  improvements, 
commenced  in  1837  ;  and  they  have  looked  forward  to  their  completion 
with  confidence,  yet  not  without  apprehension  that  their  own  unaided 
means  would  be  insufficient  to  complete  them. 

The  Central  railroad  is  in  length  from  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mis¬ 
sissippi  rivers,  pursuing  nearly  the  line  of  the  third  principal  meridian 
north,  to  the  termination  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal ;  thence  north¬ 
west  to  Galena,  the  centre  of  an  inexhaustible  lead  region,  457^  miles. 
The  cost  of  its  construction  was  estimated  by  competent  engineers  at 
$3,809, 145,  or  $8,326  per  mile,  and  there  has  been  expended  upon  it, 
principally  in  clearing  out  the  track,  in  grading,  and  embankments, 
$1,016,904  89. 

The  Northern  Cross  railroad  is  projected  to  extend  from  the  city  of  Quin¬ 
cy,  on  the  Mississippi  river,  through  a  rich  portion  of  the  State,  by  Spring- 
field,  the  seat  of  government,  east  to  the  line  dividing  Illinois  from  Indiana, 
and  is,  in  its  entire  length  on  the  surveyed  route,  234^  miles.  The  cost  of 
its  construction  was  estimated  at  $1,976,335,  or  $8,400  per  mile.  Upon 
it  the  State  has  expended  $1,354,212  69,  completing  with  it  57  continuous 
miles  of  road  from  Springfield  west  to  the  Illinois  river,  furnishing  it  with 
locomotives,  cars,  and  other  necessary  appendages,  and  in  grading  portions 
of  the  remaining  distance,  purchasing  the  right  of  way,  sites  for  depots, 
and  other  necessary  buildings.  On  both  routes,  many  of  the  most  difficult 
and  expensive  portions  of  the  work  have  been  finished,  and  the  belief  is 
entertained  by  her  public  functionaries  that,  with  some  aid  from  the  United 
States,  they  can  be  completed  in  a  few  years.  The  country  through  which 
they  are  designed  to  pass  is  admirably  adapted,  it  is  said,  to  railroads,  and 
to  no  other  kind  of  works,  there  being  no  streams  to  feed  canals  and  no 
stone  for  turnpikes,  even  if  it  were  desirable,  at  this  advanced  stage  of  im¬ 
provement  throughout  the  world,  to  construct  either  as  the  great  thorough¬ 
fares  of  transit  and  commerce. 

Without  the  extravagance  which,  a  few  years  since,  entered  into  all  cal¬ 
culations  connected  with  internal  improvements,  the  committee  are  inclined 
to  regard  these  works  as  of  much  general  as  well  as  local  importance.  The 
first,  connecting  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  running  north  through  the 
middle  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  a  perpetual  outlet  to  an  extensive  region  of 
fertile  country,  including  the  rich  lead  region  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin, 
from  which,  during  the  last  year,  more  than  55,000,000  of  pounds  of  lead 
was  shipped,  will  be  opened  by  it ;  and,  in  its  connexion  with  the  Illinois 
and  Michigan  canal,  will,  during  a  portion  of  the  year,  give  the  people  a 
choice  between  southern  and  eastern  markets ;  whilst,  being  intersected 
midway  of  its  route  by  the  Northern  Cross  railroad,  the  scope  of  its  useful¬ 
ness  will  be  greatly  enlarged,  especially  when  the  navigation  of  the  great 
rivers  above  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  is  interrupted  by  low  water  or  ice. 
From  the  greater  certainty,  speed,  and  comfort  of  railroad  conveyance  over 
that  by  steamboats,  on  the  western  rivers,  in  low  water,  it  cannot  fail  to  be¬ 
come,  in  the  warm  months,  an  important  part  of  the  great  highway  between 
New  Orleans  and  the  lakes,  and  thence  to  the  Atlantic  cities.  It  will  fur¬ 
nish,  also,  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  mail  communication  between 
New  Orleans  and  the  lake  country,  as  no  impediments  exist  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  and  that  city.  Steamboats  may  ply  as  regularly  between 
them,  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  as  they  do  between  Mobile  and  New  Orleans. 


9 


C  152  ] 

Connecting  at  the  mouth  with  regular  trains  of  cars  on  this  road,  a  mail 
line  of  great  importance  can  be  formed  to  a  vast  region  of  country  now  rap¬ 
idly  populating,  and  to  the  cities  springing  up,  as  if  by  magic,  on  the  upper 
lakes  and  upper  Mississippi.  Their  bearing  upon  the  military  defences  of 
the  country  is  thought  to  be  worthy  of  consideration,  also.  They  will 
afford  the  most  certain  means  of  rapidly  transferring,  at  all  seasons,  a  mili¬ 
tary  force  to  and  fro  between  New  Orleans  and  the  lake  region,  and  will  be 
specially  important  when  the  accustomed  channels  are  obstructed  by  low 
water  or  ice.  Passing  through  an  extensive  and  fertile  region,  where  every 
rood  of  ground  can  maintain  its  man,  and  destined  so  to  do,  if  these  or  sim¬ 
ilar  works  are  constructed,  they  will  enable  a  large  military  force  to  be  sent 
down  promptly  from  Illinois  and  the  adjacent  States,  in  convenient  reach 
of  these  roads,  when  the  descent  of  levies  from  the  States  on  the  Ohio  and 
and  upper  Mississippi  may  be  delayed  by  the  obstructions  mentioned.  In  like 
manner,  they  will  afford,  jointly  or  separately,  sure  means  for  the  rapid 
transmission  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war  from  such  depots  as  the  actual 
necessities  of  the  country  now  require  to  be  established  at  Fort  Massac  and 
other  points  on  the  Mississippi ;  and,  without  mooting  the  point  of  the  alleged 
superiority  of  railroads  over  navigable  streams  as  a  medium  of  conveyance, 
it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  they  have  this  decided  advantage  over  such 
streams  in  the  west — that  they  are  available  at  all  seasons  and  in  all  weather. 
They  have  now,  though  yet  in  their  infancy,  the  monopoly  of  mails,  pas¬ 
sengers,  and  the  business  of  six  months  of  winter  ;  and  the  cost  of  con¬ 
ducting  them  has  been  reduced,  since  their  first  introduction,  at  least  fifty 
per  cent. 

Several  of  the  eastern  cities  are  now  striving,  in  a  spirit  of  honorable  em¬ 
ulation,  to  secure  the  western  trade  by  means  of  railroads  to  reach  its  re¬ 
mote  sources.  The  time  is  not  far,  it  is  thought,  when  a  continuous  line, 
from  some  one  or  more  of  them,  will  be  made  to  the  Mississippi  river ;  to 
be  extended  thence  to  the  shores  of  the  far-distant  Pacific.  The  Northern 
Cross  railroad  of  Illinois  may  meet  one  of  them  in  its  advance  westward, 
and,  from  its  location,  must  become  one  of  the  most  important  links  in  this 
great  chain,  and  become  a  great  and  productive  thoroughfare.  Both  roads 
pass  over  immense  fields  of  bituminous  coal,  exceeding  in  extent  all  the 
coal  measures  of  any  three  of  the  adjacent  States,  and  both  point  to  a  con¬ 
nexion  with  all  the  outlets  for  the  marketable  commodities  of  that  vast  region. 
These  outlets  are  three :  one  by  the  Mississippi  to  the  gulf  of  Mexico,  an¬ 
other  by  the  lakes  and  the  improvements  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  the 
third  by  the  Ohio  river  and  the  Pennsylvania  canals  and  railroads. 

A  view  of  the  rapid  progress  of  the  States  in  commerce  and  numbers, 
whose  only  outlets  are  those  mentioned,  is  most  gratifying  indeed,  and  en¬ 
courages  the  hope  that  other  artificial  improvements,  like  those  now  bear¬ 
ing  their  produce  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  will  contribute  still  further 
to  swell  the  measure  of  their  advantages,  and  diffuse,  by  their  operation, 
immense  benefits  upon  all  sections  of  the  Union. 

Thirty  years  ago  there  was  but  one  organized  State  northwest  of  the 
river  Ohio,  with  a  population  of  about  450,000.  In  that  year  Indiana  was 
admitted,  with  86,000  inhabitants.  Michigan  and  Illinois,  including  Wis¬ 
consin,  had  together  less  than  45,000;  whilst  the  total  for  Missouri  and 
Iowa  may  be  stated  at  50,000. 

The  whole  trade  of  the  lakes  then,  and  up  to  the  time  of  the  completion 
of  the  New  York  canal,  in  1825,  was  very  inconsiderable,  employing  only 


10 


[152] 

one  steamboat  of  350  tons,  and  other  tonnage,  amounting,  in  the  whole,  to 
2,500  tons.  In  1832,  on  the  completion  of  the  Ohio  canal,  it  increased  to 
8,552  tons;  those  artificial  channels,  with  the  improvement  of  the  harbors 
on  the  lakes,  drawing  from  the  rivers  much  of  the  surplus  which  before 
sought  a  market  by  them.  In  1844,  the  enrolled  and  licensed  tonnage  up¬ 
on  the  lakes  amounted  to  61^520  tons ;  and  during  the  past  year  there  have 
been  built  and  put  in  commission,  on  lake  Erie  alone,  forty  eight  vessels 
of  10,207  tons,  and  costing  $658,000.  Between  the  ports  of  Buffalo,  in 
New  York,  and  Chicago,  in  Illinois,  on  Lake  Michigan,  there  have  been 
built,  since  1841,  thirty-one  steamboats,  seven  propellers,  and  one  hundred 
and  forty  sail  vessels  of  all  descriptions,  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of 
30,802,  and  at  a  cost  of  $1,880,000.  There  are  now  on  those  lakes  400 
vessels  of  all  kinds,  with  a  tonnage  of  80,000  tons,  valued  at  $4,050,000  ; 
and  there  are  being  built,  in  addition,  ten  steamboats,  twelve  propellers,  and 
twelve  sail  vessels,  to  accommodate  a  trade  estimated  at  $125,000,000  ! 
The  exports  from  the  port  of  Chicago  alone,  during  the  past  year,  (which, 
16  years  ago,  was  a  frontier  garrison,)  to  be  conveyed  on  the  lakes  to  the 
canals  and  railroads  of  New  York,  amounted  to  $1,202,180,  and  the  im¬ 
ports,  conveyed  in  the  same  way,  to  $1,992,838.  This  place,  the  lake  ter¬ 
minus  of  the  proposed  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  is  now  a  city  of  15,000 
inhabitants,  and  forcibly  illustrates  the  propriety  of  making  grants  for  inter¬ 
nal  improvements,  as  the  grant  for  this  canal  has  caused  many  thousand 
acres,  now  highly  cultivated,  to  sell,  which,  without  it,  could  scarcely  have 
been  given  away.  A  part  of  one  small  fraction,  of  less  than  eighty  acres, 
adjoining  it,  has  produced  to  the  United  States  a  sum  exceeding  ninety 
thousand  dollars.  The  population  of  the  new  States  which  can  have  a 
direct  participation  in  the  trade  of  these  lakes,  if  these  links  be  forged,  whose 
aggregate  was,  thirty  years  since,  but  641,000,  now  numbers  four  millions 
and  three  quarters,  and  increasing  in  a  ratio  truly  astonishing. 

By  the  latest  returns  of  the  census  of  those  States,  it  appears  that  Ohio 
has  now  a  population  of  about  two  millions  ;  Indiana  near  one  million  ;  Illi¬ 
nois  655,000;  Missouri  575,000;  Michigan  305,000 ;  Iowa  125,000,  and 
Wisconsin  115,000  ;  they  having  profited  by  two  sources  of  supply  beyond 
the  natural  increase — that  by  foreign  and  domestic  immigration.  The  six 
eastern  States  have  also  increased  in  the  same  time,  notwithstanding  emi¬ 
gration  from  them  on  an  average  of  33  per  cent. 

Much  of  this  increase,  especially  on  the  lake  border,  is  properly  placed 
to  the  account  of  the  harbors  built  upon  them,  giving  facilities  and  security 
to  that  commerce  which  now  has  to  be  told  in  millions,  and  re  acting  upon 
the  sales  of  public  lands  to  their  great  augmentation,  by  giving  to  them  a 
new  and  vast  additional  impulse. 

The  river  trade  to  the  gulf,  and  on  the  Ohio  and  the  Pennsylvania  im¬ 
provements,  has  also  increased  in  a  like  wonderful  degree,  the  ratio  of  in¬ 
crease  keeping  full  pace  with  every  extension  of  facilities  to  accommodate 
it,  and  at  reduced  charges.  The  entire  steamboat  tonnage  of  the  British 
empire,  in  1834,  did  not  exceed  82,716  tons.  Two  years  ago  that  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  alone  exceeded  it  one-third, — it  then  amounted  to  125,000 
tons.  The  value  of  property  annually  carried  upon  its  rivers  exceeds 
$250,000,000,  an  amount  greater  than  that  of  our  whole  foreign  commerce 
in  any  one  year,  for  a  series  of  years  past.  This  is  the  gratifying  picture 
presented  by  the  west.  Much  the  largest  part  of  these  products,  thus  sent 
to  and  brought  from  the  markets  of  the  world,  are  from,  and  for  the  con- 


% 


11  [  152  ] 

sumption  of,  the  people  of  the  States  containing  the  public  domain,  whose 
industry,  public  spirit,  and  energy  have  subdued  its  wildness,  made  these 
vast  contributions  to  the  commerce  of  the  nation,  and  the  domain  itself  a 
most  important  branch  of  the  national  income.  In  the  present  high  advance¬ 
ment  of  the  west  in  power  and  numbers,  the  whole  Union  has  cause  to  re¬ 
joice,  for  the  Union  has  contributed  to  it ;  and,  however  strong  it  may  be 
in  time  to  come,  however  great  its  future,  no  jealousies  should  be  excited, 
no  efforts  made  to  retard  her  in  her  advance,  for,  to  whatever  she  may  aspire, 
how  glorious  soever  may  be  her  destiny,  all  that  she  may  become,  all  that 
she  may  achieve,  will  be  the  common  property  of  the  same  Union,  in  which 
all  its  parts  will  have  a  common  interest. 

But  the  most  persuasive  argument  perhaps,  with  some,  in  favor  of  the 
grants  now  solicited,  is  the  direct  and  immediate  pecuniary  benefit  to  the 
United  States,  by  the  sale  of  the  reserved  lands.  The  great  probability  at¬ 
tending  the  grants,  that  the  roads  will  be  completed,  will  operate  as  a  most 
powerful  inducement  to  purchasers  to  settle  upon  those  reserved.  They 
have  been  for  many  years  unsaleable,  and  are  of  considerable  extent.  By 
a  statement  from  the  General  Land  Office,  before  the  committee,  it  ap¬ 
pears  that,  on  the  30th  day  of  last  December,  there  remained  of  vacant 
lands,  within  five  miles  of  the  route  of  the  Central  road,  1,608,876  acres,  of 
which  71,696  acres  are  withheld  from  sale  as  mineral  lands  ;  and  upon  the 
route  of  the  Northern  Cross  railroad,  368,S09  acres.  Much  the  largest  por¬ 
tion  of  them  has  been  in  market  more  than  fifteen  years,  as  appears  by  the 
statement  referred  to,  which  is  here  appended  : 

No.  1. 

Table  showing  the  land  districts  in  Illinois  through  which  the  great  Cen¬ 
tral  railroad  will  pass;  the  amount  of  vacant  public  lands  within  five 
miles  on  each  side  of  that  road ,  in  each  of  those  districts  ;  and  the  length 
of  time  those  lands  have  been  in  market. 


Districts. 

Acres  of  vacant 
public  land. 

Length  of  time  the  lands  have  been  in  market. 

Kaskaskia 

23,681 

Over  30  years. 

Shawneetown 

401,873 

Over  30  years. 

Vandalia 

344,672 

Two  thirds  25  years  ;  one  third  24  years. 

Danville 

372,702 

One  third  19  years;  one-third  17  years,  and 
one-third  S  years. 

Dixon 

465,948 

One  fourth  11  years;  three-eighths  3  years, 
and  three-eighths  2  years. 

Total 

1,608,876 

As  per  my  letter  of  January  31,  1846. 

General  Land  Office,  February  10,  1846. 


[152] 


12 

No.  2. 


Table  showing  the  land  districts  in  Illinois  through  which  the  Northern 
Cross  railroad  loill  pass  ;  the  amount  of  vacant  public  lands  within 
five  miles  on  each  side  of  that  road, ,  in  each  of  those  districts  ;  and  the 
le7igth  of  time  those  lands  have  been  in  market. 


Districts. 

Acres  of  vacant 
public  land. 

Length  of  time  the  lands  have  been  in  market. 

1 

Danville 

278,642 

One-half  24  years  ;  one-sixth  19  years,  and 
one  third  14  years. 

Springfield  - 

55,572 

Nine-thirteenths  23  years ;  one-thirteenth  22 
years  ;  two-thirteenths  20  years,  and  one- 
thirteenth  8  years. 

Quincy 

34,595 

The  whole  16  years. 

Total 

368,809 

• 

General  Land  Office,  February  10,  1846. 

These  lands  are,  for  the  most  part,  unsaleable,  being  destitute  of  timber 
and  remote  from  any  cheap  means  of  conveyance ;  and  they  will  remain  so 
for  many  years  to  come,  unless  made  valuable  by  artificial  means ;  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  much  larger  bodies  of  unsaleable  land  twenty  and 
thirty  miles  from  these  roads.  They  will  be  made  valuable  by  their  con¬ 
struction — a  new  and  a  powerful  impulse  will  be  given  to  their  purchase  ; 
the  benefits  of  which,  in  a  money  view,  will  wholly  inure  to  the  United 
States.  Such  a  disposition  of  a  portion  of  the  residuum  of  this  trust  fund, 
by  which  such  results  are  to  be  produced,  cannot  be  impolitic  or  unwise. 

Some  regard,  too,  should  be  paid,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  to  the 
interests  of  the  State,  as  connected  with  the  sale  and  settlement  of  these 
lands.  That  they  should  remain  vacant,  uncultivated,  yielding  nothing  in 
the  way  of  taxes  to  support  its  government,  or  to  pay  its  debts,  is  unjust  to 
her,  and  should  have  its  influence  with  Congress  in  the  adoption  of  a  mea¬ 
sure  which,  without  being  injurious  to  the  United  States,  shall  benefit  the 
State.  The  committee  believe  that  the  interests  both  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  State  will  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  grants,  and  recommend 
that  they  be  made  to  the  extent  asked  for,  being  confident  that  the  results  to 
flow  from  them  will  fully  indicate  the  wisdom  of  the  act.  As  the  original 
bill  does  not  provide  for  a  right  of  way  over  the  public  lands,  the  committee 
propose  to  amend  it  by  an  additional  section  conferring  that  right,  being 
satisfied  that  such  an  easement  will  rather  accelerate  than  retard  their  sale. 
The  committee  also  propose  to  strike  out  all  that  part  of  section  2  which 
provides  that  the  lands  reserved  to  the  United  States  shall  not  be  sold  at  a 
less  price  than  double  the  minimum  when  sold,  believing  that  if  the  lands 
can  be  made  to  sell  at  the  minimum  price,  by  the  construction  of  these 
works,  it  is  all  the  United  States  should  expect  or  desire,  they  being  now 
regarded  as  wholly  unsaleable  without  such  improvements,  except  at  a 


* 


f 


.  13  [  152  ] 

price  much  below  the  present  minimum.  The  effect  of  the  bill  will  be  to 
cause  them  to  sell  at  the  minimum,  and  the  compensation  to  the  United 
States  will  be,  not  only  by  their  sale,  but  by  the  sale  of  more  remote  bodies 
of  land,  equally  unsaleable  at  present  prices  and  in  their  present  unfavorable 
condition.  The  tables  appended,  marked  A,  B,  and  C,  compiled  from  offi¬ 
cial  documents,  may  serve  to  illustrate  some  parts  of  this  report,  and  can  be 
relied  on  as  correct.  The  first  (A)  exhibits  the  estimated  quantity  of  land 
in  each  of  the  new  States  and  Territories,  including  Oregon  territory;  the 
quantity  to  which  the  Indian  title  has  and  has  not  been  extinguished,  and 
the  quantity  surveyed  and  unsurveyed  in  each  surveyor  general’s  district 
up  to  March  1,  1843.  The  second  (B)  exhibits  the  quantity  of  land  grant¬ 
ed  to  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  the  quantity  to  which  each  of  the  new  States  is 
entitled,  as  compared  with  Ohio,  and  the  quantity  they  have  severally  re¬ 
ceived  for  all  purposes.  The  third  (C)  exhibits  the  quantity  of  lands  sold 
in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  from  the  commencement  of  sales  to  the  close 
of  1845. 

The  committee  believe,  in  view  of  the  facts  presented  by  them,  and  of 
the  immense  interest  the  United  States  possess  in  the  public  lands,  contain¬ 
ing  such  a  diversity  of  soil  and  advantages,  and  so  long  in  market  unsold,  that 
the  policy  recommended,  of  making  liberal  grants  of  them  for  improvements, 
whereby  they  can  be  made  accessible  and  saleable,  is  not  a  mistaken  one, 
and,  if  not  the  best,  is  far  preferable  to  that  policy  which  permits  thepi  to 
remain  a  mere  waste  possession;  contributing  no  revenue  to  the  nation,  noi 
to  the  States  in  which  they  lie. 


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